Amyra, on the fourth day

The camera was in my pocket on Tuesday afternoon when Amyra got herself stuck.  Guess I'd never make it as a reporter, because I didn't stop along the way to document the untangling process.  But I did get one picture after I had her all undone and doctored.

Here's the same foot this morning.  The black stuff mostly dust stuck to the wound spray and feet wet the from dew/heavy fog we had overnight.  There's some scabbing at the back, but she completely ignored my prodding at it, so apparently it's not sore.

From the left (outside, same as above)

From the back

From the front

From the right (inside)

 Still can't believe how incredibly lucky we were!

Stay Calm and Locate the Channel Locks

Stayed home sick from work yesterday, only the second one I've used since April of 2013.  I made it through morning chores with a splitting headache and one emergency run to the house for the bathroom, and decided crawling back into bed was the wisest course of action.  I hate being sick.  Divine providence at work, though. 

Because when I finally crawled out of bed at noon feeling much more human and less like body parts above my neck were going to fall off, I counted only three horses clustered together in the orchard.  Thunder, Sunny, and Rufus.  Hmmmm....  Not the normal trio (Sunny, Amyra, Thunder) plus one (Rufus) that's the usual make-up of the afternoon sun worshipers.  But the boys didn't look fussed so, I thought, she could be over eating hay at the feeder by herself, which has been known to happen.

About 1 o'clock I went out to hang a load of laundry and again counted the same three horses.  And there was whinnying, which I hadn't been able to hear from inside.  Okay, the whinnying was Sunny, who does whinny pretty much whenever the house door opens because, hey, there's a slim chance it means he's going to get fed.  But still.  And when I looked, Amyra wasn't by the feeder, and she wasn't drinking.   A quick survey of the orchard didn't turn her up; she wasn't hiding behind the pecan tree or dozing by the barn.

When I did finally spot her, my stomach flipped over.  She was up in a corner of the creek pasture, not that far from the barn geographically speaking, but definitely not somewhere she would stay of her own volition with the boys down in the orchard. And in that stationary horse position that screams, "I don't want to try to move, because I can't move."

All four feet were solidly on the ground, she was alert and looking my way, so my first thought was she'd somehow found a tangle of old wire to get stuck in.  (Despite my best efforts, every now and then one seems to roll magically out of nowhere.)  But no, it was better than that, at least marginally.  She'd managed - in that incredibly how the H-E-double-hockey-sticks??? fashion that horses do - to get one hind foot stuck in a loop of wire cable. You know, the thick kind that gets used to anchor power poles? Yep.  That kind.

Stapled to a big fence post just below dirt level, and why it was left on, I haven't the faintest.  I didn't see it when I walked the fences earlier this month (or last year, either, 'cause it surely didn't just now materialize) and Amyra caught her foot in the very end of a 15' stretch of it.  She must have stepped into it somehow, and then like a rabbit in a trap, pulled, and the twist that formed the loop tightened down until it wouldn't slide back down over her hoof.  And of course, right in the corner where two sections of barbwire meet.  Yes, I know, barbwire  + horses = bad news, but it's a COW pasture I keep being told.  Sigh. 

She wasn't panicked, thankfully, just ticked to be stuck.  And not best pleased at being deserted by the boys.  I ran back to the barn after a halter & lead, channel locks (because no way were bare hands or light pliers going to do the trick), and the wire cutters just in case she decided now was the right time to back into the fence, start kicking, and get tangled up in it, too.

Oh, and treats and the clicker.  And that proved to be the trick.  Once she determined that standing still while I untwisted the three-times-wound-around end, one twist at a time, with the channel locks so she could step out got her a clicker-reward, she was stationary.  No kicking, no fussing, just the occasional butt-sniff to see what I was up to.

Five minutes - that felt like 50, let me tell you - and she was loose.  I led her back, let her get a drink, tied her up and examined the damage - completely superficial, thank you, thank you, thank you! - and applied some topical wound spray to what basically amounted to a rub mark and one scrape on the opposite leg from the cable end.  Tolerating me poking and prodding got her some more clicks/treats, which she definitely didn't mind.  When I put her back in with the boys she had another drink and headed over to the feeder without any more fuss and no trace of soreness.
 
And THEN I spent the next five minutes sitting on the well house with my head between my knees until my stomach decided to behave.  So grateful I was home sick.  Not to mention that:

1. We've done rope work, so she didn't freak out when her foot wouldn't come loose
2. If she had to get stuck in something, the cable was nice and thick and left a few surface scrapes, but no worse damage
3. We've apparently established enough of a rapport that even though every time I pried on the cable it dug into her, she tolerated it because she trusted that I was helping.  Well, that or she just really liked the treats...

Saying my Thanksgiving thank-yous a bit early this year, that's for sure!

All Wrapped Up: Review of the "Hoof Wrap"

Injuries are seldom positive, but looking on the bright side Rufus's has provided some husband/wife/horse bonding time.  

Soak, soak, soak

Along with that, I've also gotten the chance to use a few products on a long term basis that I otherwise might not have encountered.  On the off chance that my experience might be helpful, I thought I'd review a few of them over the next few weeks.

New wrap

I mentioned the Hoof Wrap in my last post, as the final layer of protection that allows Rufus to be out and about with the herd.  He's been wearing one  24x7 for the last going-on-four months - a pretty fair test of usefulness and durability.

• What it is: the name actually describes it well.  It's a soft, easy-on, plasticy/canvas wrap with hook & loop fasteners and a removable pad. 
• What it does: protects the sole and hoof (and any injuries) from the ground.
• How to put them on:  Remove the backing from the velcro squares, attach the pad to the wrap, and then just follow the numbered tabs.  After multiple applications, I found actually found it faster to pre-fasten all but the last two tabs on the wrap, then simply slip the wrap on and do up the last two tabs.
  
  
• Where to get them: you can purchase direct from the company's website, but I've been ordering  from Valley Vet : quick shipping, reasonable prices, super helpful customer service, and a slight discount when you buy two or more at a time.)

Rufus has worn his:

• In the mud: some wet does seep in, but cleaning the wrap isn't hard.  Either wait until it's dry and let it slough off, or if it's stuck on, it soaks off easily. The fasteners do collect some gunk, and they don't stick closed as well when they're covered in muck, so having a second clean wrap on hand to change out doesn't hurt.
  
  

  

  After a few wears

• On extremely hard ground: when it's super dry - it's drought-stricken northwest Kansas out there, so there's never a shortage of dry - the interior pad compresses faster.  Rufus would walk a hoof-print shaped depression into a pad in a day.  In dry conditions, I could use the same wrap until it fell apart, but the pad needed to be swapped out at least every other day.   Pads do puff back up enough to reuse several times before they stop recovering.
  
  

  

  Interior of the wrap with pad after several uses

• While turned out:  the terrain in the big pasture (10 acres) is uneven and brushy. Initially I was worried the wrap would catch and pull right off.  I wasn't completely wrong, as he come in sans wrap more than once.  But hey, those hours I spent walking concentric circles gave me a chance to work on my tan, right? And overall he lost his fly mask a lot more frequently.  The wraps actually stayed put much better than I predicted. 

Horse approved? From the first, Rufus had no objections to wearing the wrap.  It provides decent traction, at least on dirt and pasture, and doesn't cause rubs or irritate his skin.  (We do wind on a layer of Vetrap, both to prolong the effectiveness of the Corona as well as to provide a buffer between horsehide & the stiffer fabric of the wrap.)

Bottom of the wrap after about a week of use, without duct tape

 Another reason to like the wrap?  Unlike most of the boots I looked at, I didn't have to know what size shoe Rufus wears, or take measurements, or order different ones for front and back.  Hoof Wraps come in one size, which they say will fit 80% of horses.  Just looking at one, I would not expect it to fit drafts, minis, or small ponies.

Toe view of a well used wrap - this one I retired, but you can
see how the outer reinforcing layers had worn through. 
The velcro fasteners were shot on this one by this point.

On average, wraps lasted 2-3 weeks before the bottoms wore out.  I did have to do some restitching on the front tabs of a couple of them, and I started reinforcing the toe area with bright pink duct tape, both for extra wear and for better visibility in case of loss.

Reinforced, for visibility and longer wear

Still in use, but showing some wear.

I've been so pleased with how well the wraps have preformed I even wrote the company, to say how much I like them, which I almost never do.

Rufus in the wrap, walking - very brief

 

If I could make any changes, I would:

1. Use stronger thread to attach the fasteners. (Those were what I ended up sewing back on on a couple of occasions).
2. Make the fasteners and/or the wraps in bright colors to make locating lost ones easier I never would have guessed basic black would be so difficult to spot!
3.  Supply additional velcro stick-on squares with the replacement pads, because I always ran out of those before I exhausted my supply of pads.  (Velcro does make a stick-on product that will adhere to flexible vinyl, but it can be tough to locate around here.)

Minor details aside, I would highly recommend adding a Hoof Wrap to whatever emergency kit is in your barn or trailer for a quick, economical, easy to pack, temporary solution for stone bruises, thrown shoes, etc.

July: an injury

A hot, mid-July Sunday.  Middle of the day, and too sticky to ride, so I had the radio cranked while I cleaned out the tack room and granary entry way.  The horses were dozing in the shade of the barn, stomping flies. 

Not the same day, but you get the idea.

In the length of time it took me to run up to the house to use the bathroom and re-fill my water jug, Rufus somehow managed to split the inside of his right hind hoof clear up to the coronet band.

The pictures of the initial injury are on my cell phone - can't figure out how to get them transferred.

To this day I have no idea what he connected with, but he was three-legged when I got back to the barn.  I called the farrier, of course.  Repeatedly.  No answer. 

We both called around to several area horse-owners for other farriers with no luck - either they weren't taking new clients, were not traveling to our area, or didn't want to deal with Arabians.

Tuesday we ended up at the vet, who trimmed the hoof back pretty radically and recommended Bute, soaking, booting, & restricted movement.

July 17, 2014

A week later the farrier finally returned my call.  After a visit during which he confirmed too big a chunk was missing for a shoe to help (and called the vet a hack),  he said what we were doing was probably going to work as well as anything else.  So there we were...

In the meantime, I'd gone online hunting for long-term horse boot solutions, and stumbled on Hoof Wraps at Valley Vet (love that place).   For weeks we soaked Rufus's foot twice daily in warm water & Epson salts, followed by applications of Vetericyn wound spray (recommended by our previous vet from SD) on the exposed lamina and Coronoa hoof dressing along the coronet band, Vetrap and a Hoof Wrap to cover.

 

No Bute at all, as amazingly, after the vet trimmed the ripped triangle of hoof away, he was barely off, and progressed speedily toward completely sound.  I hate medicating if it's unnecessary, and the padding provided by the Wrap allowed him to walk, trot, and even lope without soreness.   Needless to say, he hasn't been ridden at all.  But he has been able to go out in the big pasture with the other three without any ill effects.

August 3, 2014

As his hoof grew out, we ceased soaking.  By late September, the lamina was no longer exposed and we transitioned to once daily changing of the cotton pad coated with Corona followed by Vetrap & the Hoof Wrap.

August 31, 2014

His hoof continues to look better.  He's on a hoof & joint supplement, which I think is helping, and I'm cautiously optimistic that he won't have a long-term crack running down from where the split went up into the coronet band.

Oct. 12, 2014

Oct. 26, 2014

Oct. 22, 2014
Rufus, second from left

Healing nicely!

Back in early October we arrived at the farm to find Amyra with a really nasty gash midway up her barrel.

From this...

Oct. 9, 2010

After stitching...

After a week

After 20 days

Dec. 10th - after 2 months

Not too shabby! I don't think it's even going to leave a mark.

Injury update

Healing nicely!

Water, water, everywhere

What else does 5+ inches of rain do? Well, when your neighbor vents his sump pump next to your foundation, it trickles into your basement.

The rain did stop about 9 a.m. After we turned Rufus's batch of ponies out for the day, picked up a feeder for the duck and some more betadine wash for Thunder's owie, we spent the day vacuuming, dumping buckets, and tromping up and down the stairs. Finally picked up a pump sometime in the afternoon, and then discovered that the floor drain had a clog - much better than the storm drains being backed up.

So, there's still water coming in, but not so much. First time in six years, too. This house has never needed a sump pump. Guess it will get one now! We're not the only ones, either. We bumped into one man this morning that had lived here for 30 years with no water. He was buying a pump, too.

The roads tonight were worse than last night.
I don't even want to think what the gravel looks like - this one was bad enough. (And yes, we did drive through running water - but we watched another car come through it our way first.)

Thunder's gash pre-wash - the swelling was down, and there wasn't any heat to it.

Post-wash, pre-salve...
It's clean, pink, and closing from the back to the front. I didn't give him any penicillin. It looks pretty good with the antibiotic salve for now.

And... yes, the trailer we tried out did come home with us!

It's an aluminum, 7x20', 4-horse, LQ combo-stock. Plenty of room for the horses, mats, front tack... It needs to be cleaned & disinfected, vacuumed, and we have to pick up a spare, but other than that - it made me smile every time I dumped a bucket of water out next to it!

Not a good horse weeked: Part 3 - Sunday

Sunday did not come in quietly. It howled its way in, wind screaming around the house, blasting icy pellets of snow and snapped twigs against the windows. The cats were wired, racing through the bedroom and startling, big-eyed, at the rattling and whistling noises from outside.

The view, once daylight finally shivered across the horizon, just made me want to crawl back into bed. White. Snatches of trees & the house across the street occasionally, but mostly just white. On the plus side, it didn't look as if there'd been that much accumulation.... Of course, to accumulate, the snow would first have had to touch the ground before sailing off again.

The actual temperature was -10. The wind was gusting to nearly 40 mph. The folks at the Weather Channel were predicting a high of 3'. It actually might have made it to freezing. But it was still -6 when we headed out to feed at 2:30.

The roads actually weren't all that bad where the wind could get at them. The horses were happy to see us. But oh, crap. One of them was one the wrong side of the fence. And on closer examination, bloody. Lovely.

Foxy is low horse. She gets last chance at the hay, last chance at water, and she pretty much ducks and covers whenever one of the others want something she has. Sometime this afternoon she must have managed to get herself cornered, and escape was over the fence. From the tracks, it looks as if she actually cut herself attempting to get back over.

******************************
Warning, blood!
******************************

Thankfully, on close examination,
it appears to be surface scratches only.
And flash frozen, at that.

She is not lame - at all. In fact, she really did not want to be caught, and showed us just how lame she is not quite determinedly for about 10 minutes before she decided that evasion wasn't going to get her her grain ration.

If things happen in threes, hopefully, this is it for a while!

Injury tracking...

Okay, that settles it. I definitely need to keep better health records. Out of the blue this morning my in-box contained a message regarding a horse I used to ride. His new owners have started working toward getting him ready to compete in HA Sport Horse Class A shows. Their question: had he ever sustained a tendon injury or strain? He has a bump on the back of one front leg. He had it when they bought him, and they, and their trainer, are concerned. The vet says it's just scar tissue, but they don't want to push him too hard and possibly aggravate an old injury - if that's what it is.

Well, I had to sit and think for a bit. The bump I remembered. I also knew I'd never seen him lame or even slightly off other than a lengthy period while a truly nasty gash to his off hind healed. That injury - you can't miss the scar - was fully disclosed before they purchased him, and not the subject of their question. I handled this boy from long-yearling age on until he sold to them at 8 (he's now 10). I treated his various scrapes and bruises, all minor other than that sole bad one.... Something about that bump rang a bell, but what?

After pondering I finally remembered him coming in from the pasture with a puncture wound. He wasn't at all lame, and since it was in a good spot for drainage, we cleaned him up, dressed it with salve & wound powder, and let him be. It healed, but did leave a bump. I was able to clear up their concern - no old bow, just scar tissue. And they were in complete agreement with my thought that they might just need to give him enough time to develop the muscle for sustaining collection over longer periods. They were relieved, and I was glad my memory hadn't failed me.

It was a doh! moment: just how many similar nicks, cuts and scrapes have I doctored (and on which horses, when)? Scuffs and bumps not serious enough to have a vet out, but that might have scarred or be the sign of something recurrent. For the times requiring a vet visit, how good are my records? Only two of the (currently 9) horses on the farm are mine, so the decision as to who gets called in and when isn't always mine to make. And since I don't pay the bills, the receipts aren't handy, either. But I'm the one who handles them.... I track worming, vaccinations, farrier visits & other routine stuff, and I do have notes on vet visits and treatment required... why not the "minor" injuries?

Would it be so difficult to snap a quick digital pic (love that date stamp) and save it with the horse's name & stats? Probably not. I usually have the camera handy anyway, and it would be a good way to track how well things are healing, too. I did some hunting, and came across the following at Equisearch: Keeping Your Horse's Health Records, offering some pertinent and practical suggestions for maintaining routine health records. There seem to be a myriad of products sold to help one keep track, many of which provide the ever-nifty search feature -- or I can really go all out and just use the horse planner my loving husband bought me for Christmas. I hereby vow to do better!

So, how well do you document, and what? Do you find buyers are apt to ask in detail regarding old, but still visible injury marks? How often have you had to check back regarding a past treatment for a recurring problem?